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Dan Gainor, The Boone Pickens Free Market Fellow and Vice President for Business and Culture for the Media Research Center, is a veteran editor with two decades’ experience in print and online media. He has served as an editor at several newspapers including The Washington Times and The Baltimore News-American. Mr. Gainor also has extensive experience in online publishing – holding the position of managing editor for CQ.com, the Web site of Congressional Quarterly, and executive editor for ChangeWave, published by Phillips International. He has worked in financial publishing in his last two positions, launching new services for ChangeWave and Agora Inc. Mr. Gainor holds an MBA from the University of Maryland Robert H. Smith School of Business and a master’s in publications design from the University of Baltimore. As an undergraduate, he majored in political science and history at the University of Maryland Baltimore County. Mr. Gainor volunteers as a media and issues speaker with the Close-Up Foundation.

The “most transparent administration in history” finally released the new FCC rules – two weeks after it had voted on them. Counting the dissent, the new regulations equaled 268,154 words and 400 pages. There were 163 mentions of “transparency” in the new regulations that no voter was allowed to see until after the FCC voted on the rules.

The new rules were strongly opposed by conservatives who wanted to see the documents before the vote. However, in the tradition of Obamacare, the promise of transparency was entirely bogus.

Houston’s attack on the religious liberty of five pastors created a nationwide uproar among conservatives. And not one second of attention from the broadcast news outlets.

Fox News broke the story on Tuesday about Houston’s extreme reaction to opponents of a new “nondiscrimination law.” “The law, among other things, would allow men to use the ladies room and vice versa,” according to The Christian Post. Many Christians have opposed it and had collected an estimated 50,000 signatures to bring it to a vote.

Network coverage of the Supreme Court’s decision not to hear appeals regarding gay marriage turned into a propaganda-laden effort that more closely resembled a ballpark Kiss-Cam.

ABC, CBS and NBC filled their Oct. 6 evening news broadcasts with celebrating gays and lesbians – including at least 20 separate wedding photos and eight separate homosexual kissing scenes. Throw in NBC’s failure to disclose its close connection to one of the talking heads and it was a typical night for network coverage.

Notice how when liberals say insane things, they never make the news? Former New York Times Middle East Bureau Chief Chris Hedges has become open about his lunacy in recent years. Hedges went on a massive anti-Israel rant during a recent liberal event in Wisconsin where he also predicted that a “revolt” is on the way.

While Hedges claimed he didn’t support revolution, he wasn’t optimistic about avoiding it. “I do not say this because I am a supporter of revolution. I am not,” he said. “Revolt is the only option left.”

With the fighting between Israel and Hamas halted – for now – it’s important to look at the role media played aiding Palestinian terrorists. Network news shows embraced a new narrative – moral equivalency. Hamas and Israel were treated as equals. Reporters and anchors almost never called Israel’s enemy Hamas a “terrorist” organization.

ABC, CBS and NBC journalists referred to Hamas as “militants,” “fighters” or “soldiers” 13 times more often than they called them “terrorists.” (65 stories to 5 stories.) All three networks were almost equally bad – ranging in coverage from 12-to-1 to 15-to-1, calling Hamas militants/fighters/soldiers vs. terrorists.

Broadcast news outlets have figured out a way to end terrorism. Just stop calling it what it is. They identify terror groups like Hamas “militants” instead.

Hamas has been raining rockets indiscriminately on Israel and is blamed for the recent kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teens. It’s a group the United States has designated as terrorist for nearly 17 years. Yet on evening and morning broadcasts, ABC, CBS and NBC called them “militants” and “fighters” by a 9-to-1 margin over “terrorists” (18-2).

When it comes to big money in politics, there’s only one name the broadcast networks dwell on – the Koch brothers.

Billionaires David and Charles Koch are major contributors to both conservative and Republican causes. Democrats are “placing them at the center of their midterm election strategy,” according to Daniel Schulman, a senior editor at the George-Soros funded Mother Jones.

For eight years, Jack Bauer and his elite team of agents fought against terrorists, a drug cartel and would-be assassins. Bauer overcame each crisis in just a 24-hour period. Now, he has returned to face the real-time challenges of stopping a terrorist attack in “24: Live Another Day.”

But how would Bauer handle some of the worst denizens of the Internet? Where would he start to combat the collection of lies, disinformation, hype and propaganda? Why, The Huffington Post, of course.

Five years ago, the Tea Party launched itself onto the American political scene – pushing hard against ObamaCare, the $787-billion stimulus and Big Government. On Feb. 27, 2009, Tea Party protests were held in more than 40 cities.

But rather than treat the Tea Party as a standard protest movement, the American media closed ranks with the left and spent much of the last five years attacking them. The Tea Party has been called “racist,” “homophobic,” “terrorists” and “wingnuts.” It has also been accused of causing “economic destruction.” The media tried to link Tea Partiers to the attack on then-Rep. Gabrielle “Gabby” Giffords, D-Ariz., and the Aurora theater shooting.

Editor's Note: Dan Gainor, MRC's Vice President for Business and Culture addressed the recent suspension of "Duck Dynasty" star Phil Robertson in the following statement to Variety today:

TV networks might claim they support free speech, but the suspension of “Duck Dynasty” star Phil Robertson shows that to be an utter lie. They only support free speech they agree with. Foul comments by MSNBC’s Martin Bashir take weeks to resolve, but utter your Christian beliefs in an inartful way and you are instantly suspended by A&E. This is just the latest example of media outlets bowing to the militant LGBT agenda that would remove all voices for traditional marriage from TV. [statement continues after page break]

The United States is poised to fire missiles at Syria in response to chemical attacks on Syrian civilians. But the assault will also pit the U.S. against one side of the civil war and aid the other side, which includes Al Qaeda. That falls just days before the anniversary of Al Qaeda attacks against both the World Trade Center and Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001.

Broadcast news outlets are clearly aware of the Islamic terror group’s role in Syria, but rarely report it. Nearly 94 percent of all Syria stories since the gas attacks have made no mention of Al Qaeda whatsoever.

It’s not like the networks haven’t had time. Since the gas attack, which happened Aug. 21 in Ghoutta, Syria, ABC, CBS and NBC morning and evening news shows have done at least 171 stories on the conflict. Just 11 of those stories have made any mention of the terrorists of Al Qaeda, and all of those have been passing references. There hasn’t been one story focused exclusively on Al Qaeda in Syria during that time.

President Obama continued his War on Christianity Monday and the broadcast networks continued to ignore it. Obama was in Northern Ireland for the G-8 conference and used a town hall meeting for youth in Belfast to show his contempt for religious education. The president criticized separate religious schools for promoting “division.”

The story drew attention in conservative media outlets and was linked on the Drudge Report. But no major network news show covered the event in the two days that followed. ABC, CBS and NBC all skipped the story, even though it made the rounds in conservative media especially on Wednesday.

Some of the news Wednesday night wasn’t particularly compelling. ABC “World News with Diane Sawyer” took two minutes to devote to “flash mobs for hire.” NBC “Nightly News” found 36 seconds to devote to the decline of the Houston Astrodome, the “cathedral of sports once known as the eighth wonder of the world.”

The gay marriage debate went to the Supreme Court on Tuesday and all three network evening news shows spun the argument in support of gay marriage.

While audio from the court gave ABC, CBS and NBC the ability to deliver balanced portrayals of the actual debate inside, each show put its own twist on the day’s events –against traditional marriage.

CBS “Evening News” was the most overt. Anchor Scott Pelley led into the report asking “how all this got started in California?” Reporter John Blackstone’s report was filled with images of gay couples and included at least 12 separate video or photo clips of gay weddings. That story dwelt heavily on how gays wanted things their way, profiling a lesbian couple that wants to get married, and quoting two other pro-gay voices. It included only one supporter of traditional marriage.

Liberals always say they don’t want to take away guns. But give them an awful tragedy like the Newtown, Conn. shooting and they get bolder and more honest. MSNBC host Ed Schultz showed a rare bout of such honesty during a brief Twitter exchange Saturday. Schultz asked “Why should anyone own an assault rifle ?” and followed it up by saying “it's the confiscation of these types of weapons that counts and will have an impact.”

“The Ed Show” host wasn’t done his attack on gun rights. “The NRA needs to state the case why assault weapons are needed by anyone,” he claimed. And after that, he told one poster that “a Glock pistol qualifies as an assault weapon.” That last bit is surely a surprise to both gun owners and Congress which didn’t include handguns in its previous assault weapons ban.

Israel was attacked by more than 200 rockets on Nov. 15 by a known terror organization – known by everyone but ABC, CBS and NBC.

Hamas, which runs the Gaza Strip, was declared a “foreign terrorist organization” more than 15 years ago by the United States. But not one rocket attack story on the network morning or evening news shows called the terrorists anything other than “militants.”

In 61 percent of the stories (8 out of 13) in 2012, the three networks wemt to great pains to avoid calling Hamas terrorists. Instead, they were “militants” with “militant Islamic leaders”

Journalists have been reeling from the realities of new media. No longer can they pretend their actual reporting lacks bias. Spun news stories, bogus video editing, lies and false statistics all make up the daily news diet.

ABC News senior correspondent Jim Avila has a new target for his “pink slime” crusade – a mother whose 6-year-old son died from E coli. Avila, whose coverage has targeted Beef Products, Inc., went after the company’s supporters at an Iowa press conference.

At the same time, one beef maker has had to file for bankruptcy protection as a result of the media assault. “AFA Foods, a company that produces beef products, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection today and announced it’s selling some assets because of a decrease in demand attributed to the recent media coverage of ‘pink slime.’” The company employs 850 people, adding to the 650 already furloughed thanks to the news media.

Some journalists aren’t content with covering the news; they have to make it, too. That’s been ABC’s strategy as the network has led the charge against USDA-approved beef. That agenda has put at least 600 jobs in jeopardy as the targeted company suspended operations in three separate plants.

ABC’s Jim Avila has been out in front of the issue, repeatedly calling the beef “pink slime,” a term a former USDA employee coined. In all, ABC used the term “pink slime” 52 times in just a two-week span.

Radical anti-life groups have decided to destroy the Susan G. Komen foundation for daring to challenge the abortionists of Planned Parenthood. The so-called “pro-choice” community targeted the group’s fund-raising and even hacked the Komen website, adding a slogan for the “Race for the Cure,” urging readers to “help us run over poor women on the way to the bank.”

Both left-wing organizations and traditional news outlets are helping them do it. Soros-funded radical groups like Moveon.org urged its supporters to “stand with groups that don’t screw over Planned Parenthood,” it too funded by Soros millions. They called on Susan G. Komen to restore its relationship with the abortionists.

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